Macro warning message on upgrade
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After being prompted by NPP to upgrade to v.8.6.5, I’ve just seen this pop up warning, which unfortunately makes no sense to me as I don’t knowingly use macros or run commands and I’ve no idea what my “shortcuts.xml” is. I do use some plug-ins but I’ve no idea if that is relevant. Thus I’ve no idea what to do as there’s no clear choice for me. I am on the non-programmer spectrum of NPP users so appreciate that I may be missing something blindingly obvious for those that are devs.
After posting in the upgrade thread, I was directed to post elsewhere as it was not relevant, and also after reading https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/24464/faq-v8-5-3-and-newer-macros-and-run-menu-commands which TBH lost me at the second line.I have also noticed though that .txt files are no longer associated with NPP and it’s no longer in the list of available programs to use, so something is evidently broken after the upgrade. Not sure how to fix that.
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@Mr-Brunes said in Macro warning message on upgrade:
After posting in the upgrade thread, I was directed to post elsewhere as it was not relevant, and also after reading https://community.notepad-plus-plus.org/topic/24464/faq-v8-5-3-and-newer-macros-and-run-menu-commands which TBH lost me at the second line.
If you cannot even understand that line, which essentially says “Notepad++ changed the way it reads saved macros”, then you probably don’t use macros. In which case, you can just say OK to the dialog box, and forget about it.
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@PeterJones tx for the explanation. It’d be handy if future warning messages of any potential for disruption could include a “Learn More” link which would detail the impacts on the entire spectrum of the user base.
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I would think that “Your macro commands … may not be compatible with the current version of Notepad++. Please test those commands and, if needed, re-edit them” would be pretty self-explanatory: it is saying that if you have macro commands, you need to test if they still work, and will need to edit them if they don’t work.
The dialog title literally says it’s for the Macros and Run Commands, so if you’re not using those features, I am not sure why you would be bothered by this message.
It seems to explain it pretty well for any level of user I’ve encountered – except, obviously, you – or, at least, no one else has come asking that the message be improved, so I have to assume that most entry-level users have been able to figure out what it means. (But maybe it means they’re all scared of it, and downgrade to v8.5.2 and never upgrade again.)
However, for your sake, I put in a feature request to add something like “If you don’t use commands from the Macros or Run menus, or if all your Macros and Run Menu commands are working fine, then you can safely hit OK and not worry about this message.”
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M mkupper referenced this topic on May 7, 2024, 6:54 PM
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Ok apols for late reply to your original request on how the warning could be rewritten.
Some background - I used to work as a field sales tech consultant for a tier 1 global data storage manufacturer and so was well versed in getting beaten up on engagements, nearly always for things that I wasn’t directly responsible for, but hey you’re there and folks want to unload, and often with justification. We often ended up rewriting all sorts of customer docs, but also shipped cases of European beer for the devs.
It’s especially hard if you’re involved with data security or content creation, since any issues impact productivity in terms of wasted time and worst of all, potential loss of content or even the fear of the latter.
Other than the golden rule of Don’t Break Stuff, (and if you must then prepare everyone by explaining the heck out of it) the general themes were to consider your audience and the impact for all of them e.g.
Who – are the affected users
What – is the change
Why – is the change req’d
When - is the impact
Where - can you go for more info and on how to roll-back.I’m sure folks will say this is all overkill, and it would be for a crappy new app that didn’t create content, but that isn’t the case here, and so there are expectations! 😉 Ok time to stop rambling.
On this particular change, I fell at the first fence i.e. I had no idea whether I was affected. Only a fool would conclude that they would not be affected if they didn’t understand the warning!
Now I see your reply is updated, so thanks for considering the issue! :-)